Labor’s Community Service Agency: 40 Years and Counting

Labor’s Community Service Agency (LCSA) celebrated its 40th anniversary last month.

A non-profit organization funded primarily by United Way of the Columbia-Willamette, LCSA operates under the auspices of the Northwest Oregon Labor Council and a 16-person board of directors. The agency works with an array of community-based and governmental organizations throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington to provide education, information, referral services, and social service programs.

LCSA’s executive director is Vickie Burns. She is the fourth person to serve as director since the agency was founded July 5, 1974.

From the initial meeting minutes on record, the first LCSA “membership meeting” was held Dec. 3, 1974, at which time “the Chairman of the Nominating Committee” recommended a slate for the first board of directors and its officers. The slate included: John Wilson, president; Earl Kirkland, 1st vice president (executive secretary of the Columbia Pacific Building Trades Council); Janet Baumhover, 2nd vice president (a retired member of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists); Sue Pisha, secretary (Communications Workers of America); and Thomas Jack Baker, treasurer (executive secretary-treasurer of the then Multnomah County Labor Council).

Wilson steered the agency through the bureacracy,  getting it registered as a charitable corporation and trust, establishing its 501(c)3 status, filing for tax exemption, and negotiating the first contract with what was then United Good Neighbors (which became United Way in 1975.)

Wilson resigned in November of 1975. At that time he recommended the  agency’s president and its director should be two separate positions. On Nov. 26, 1975, a special committee of the board recommended that Del Ricks, then executive vice president of the Oregon State Industrial Union Council, become the executive director.

Ricks was officially appointed to the post on Dec. 15, 1975.

Ricks suffered a heart attack in July 1992 and was unable to return to work.

Glenn Shuck of the Steelworkers Union took over as interim director. LCSA’s Executive Board appointed him executive director in February 1993.

Shuck was introduced to LCSA in 1983 during a lengthy Steelworkers strike at Oregon Steel Mills in Portland. The strike ended badly, with the union busted in 1984. The mill closed in 1985.

After that happened, Shuck began working with Labor’s Community Service Agency on a pilot program that Ricks had arranged with Mt. Hood Community College to assist laid off workers transition into new jobs. LCSA has been contracted to provide dislocated worker services ever  since.

The funding has held up through various legislation: The Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA), Workforce Investment Act (WIA), and now the new Workforce Innovations and Opportunities Act, Burns said.

Shuck retired in June 2010 and Burns, a member of Office and Professional Employees Local 11, was hired to succeed him. She had been the office manager of LCSA since 1993.

Under Burns’ leadership, LCSA extensively promotes United Way’s annual fundraising campaign. She also serves on United Way’s Campaign Cabinet. She revamped the agency’s Helping Hands program to make it easier for union officials to refer members in need, and has boosted the annual Presents from Partners toy drive and distribution program. She also launched a web site and Facebook page for the agency.

Her office manager is Eryn Byram, also a member of Local 11.

For 40 years, United Way funding has allowed LCSA to meet the needs of the community through volunteer training programs, union counselor courses, blood drives, community family dinner nights, emergency assistance, holiday meals, Presents From Partners, and Labor in the Pulpits, to name only a few.

Here’s to the next 40 years!